WA 'pay per mile' pilot program comes off as Orwellian data collection

By KVI Staff
1520955066000

Forget the gas gauge, soon the odometer on your car might dictate how much you pay to drive on Washington roads. KVI's John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur interview one of the test subjects in the state's new "pay per mile" pilot program, Mariya Frost, who happens to be a transportation policy analyst for the Washington Policy Center.

After receiving a first round of pilot program data collection for the Washington State Department of Transportation's proposed "pay per mile" tax to likely replace a gas tax, KVI's John Carlson expresses his concern about how extensive the data collection is for drivers.

One of the test subjects in the "pay per mile" program is the Transportation Policy Director for the Washington Policy Center, Mariya Frost. Frost tells KVI, "I found out that not only is my mileage being tracked, location being tracked--all these things I consented to--but also my speed, how I turn." Frost concluded that her first experience being monitored for the 'pay per mile' tax was a bit shocking. She ultimately noted that based on the mileage she drove in the first phase of this pilot program she ended up paying more to drive per mile than she would have paid under the existing price of the gas tax for the fuel she consumed.

Carlson responded to Frost's revelations by saying "as soon as I saw these overhead pictures and these notifications of how often she was speeding and how fast above the speed limit for what amount of time, that's when I said 'ya know what?', get me off this train right now. I have no desire to be part of something like this. So get your guard up on this one. The pay per mile tax is absolutely Orwellian."